齿 (chǐ) · tooth, teeth

Meanings

1 tooth
2 teeth
3 tooth-like part; cog

Characters

齿

chǐ

tooth; teeth

Examples

HSK 5

他的牙齿很整齐。

Tā de yáchǐ hěn zhěngqí.

His teeth are very straight.

HSK 6

这个齿轮坏了。

Zhège chǐlún huài le.

This gear (cogwheel) is broken.

Tips

usage

齿 is the literary/formal word for tooth. In everyday speech, 牙 or 牙齿 is used. 齿 appears in many compounds: 齿轮 (gear), 口齿 (articulation), 不齿 (to despise).

history

The traditional character 齒 is a pictograph resembling a mouth with teeth. It's one of the 214 Kangxi radicals (radical 211).

Components

phonetic

止 zhǐ

stop; foot

Top 止 zhǐ supplies the sound with a small tone shift zhǐ → chǐ - a regular old-Chinese alternation between dental initials. Originally 齿 was just a pictograph of a mouth full of teeth; 止 was added later on top as a sound clue to disambiguate the graph.

semantic

凵 kǎn

open container; jaw outline

Outer bottom shape 凵 sketches the open jaw or mouth cavity - the rim that holds the teeth. The simplified 齿 keeps only this minimal frame plus a single inner pair where the traditional 齒 had four teeth drawn explicitly.

semantic

人 rén

person; here, a stylised tooth-pair

Inside the jaw frame sits a tiny 人-shape standing in for the teeth themselves. The traditional 齒 drew several rows; the 1956 reform collapsed them into this one person-like silhouette. Read the inner 人 as 'teeth visible in the open mouth'.

Radical

Tooth Kangxi #211

Indexes characters about teeth, age, and ranking (since age was historically counted by tooth eruption). Compounds: 龄 (age, simplified from 齡), 龅 (buck-tooth), 龇 (bare the teeth), 龉 / 龃 (teeth misaligned, used metaphorically for disagreement). The simplified 齿 abstracts the original pictograph of teeth in a mouth.